The Stag and the Doe: A Marauders Tale
by starlit888
Summary: A classic J and L story.  Lily Evans hates James Potter.  James Potter is head over heals in love with Lily Evans.  Dark days lie ahead, ready for James and Lily.  But when they come, will James and Lily be fighting together?
1. Prologue

AN: So here is the prologue of the new story. I hope you like this one better. I feel as though my writing style has improved!

DISCLAIMER: As much as I wish I did, I do not own anything. JK does... *sigh*

PROLOGUE

"Oi! Evans!" Shouted a familiar voice...too familiar. Uh oh, Lily Evans a beautiful (although she didn't know it) red head with skin as white as snow, thought. She knew what was coming, she knew it since 3rd year (hogsmead). She braced herself for _The Question__._

"What Potter?" She spat his name. She was sick and tired of this. It was the last day of 6th year and he still hadn't (at all this year)given her one day without him asking her this.

"Will you go out with me?" James said while ruffling his jet black hair.

"No!" Lily shouted at him.

"Awww, Evans. Don't be like that. Why won't you go out with me?" He said putting on his puppy dog eyes.

"You want to know why I won't go out with you? (He nodded) I won't go out with you because you're an arrogant, big ego brained, pig headed prat! And you only want me for the chase because I am the only girl who isn't drooling at your feet!" Lily's face colour was as red as her hair, this was something that happened when lily was angry, upset or embarrassed."Now if you'll excuse me James I have a train to catch!" And with that Lily walked away.

James was left staring, his mouth wide open at Lily. _That was harsh!_ he thought but that wasn't why he was upset. He was upset because he knew it was true. He knew that the 'chase' for Lily Evans was exciting. Maybe he doesn't really love her? Then finally a thought hit him in his face. It was like those cuts you get that don't hurt until you realise they're there. Lily Evans had just called her James. James. James! His name has never sounded sweeter. James started dancing down the halls, singing deck the halls and jingle bells, causing many first years to look at him as if he was crazy and quickly run away. He was the happiest he had ever been! He was finally making progress! So maybe he really does love her after all...

AN: So that's the prologue. I hope it intrigues you to read on! Please review and give some suggestions. If you do, it will help me write on. Basically reviews = More chapters. I'm not trying to force you though, I'll write anyway...

-Starlit888 3


	2. Chapter 1: The Potter Owl

THE POTTER OWL

It was a couple weeks after Lily had hopped off the Hogwarts express and into her family's (or at least one member of her family) arms. It was a Saturday afternoon, to be exact, and it was beautiful outside. Everybody in Pivet drive was outside playing on their lawns, doing some gardening or simply reading the Saturday newspaper outside.

Except for Lily Evans of course. Lily was cooped up in her room, lying on her bed doing the last of her summer homework...the four-foot long history of magic essay on goblin rebellion number 27649. Which lasted for twenty years. _Twenty years too long_ Lily thought. Twenty goblin rebellion years equaled at least one day (If not more) spent in her room. _Oh well_ she thought _at least all my homework will be done_ Lily is quite studious but naturally Lily Evans hated history of magic, It was the most boring subject that has ever existed on the face of the earth. And the fact that professor Binns was a ghost didn't make him any less boring. It had happened when Lily was in fourth year. One-day professor Binns had walked in to get ready for class, except at the same time was he was dead, in the staff room. People were freaking out wondering how he could be in two places at once. Turned out he was a ghost. He was so boring that he hadn't noticed that he was a ghost.

Lily sighed. _Might as well get on with it_ she muttered to her self. She opened up her text-book ('history of magic level six' by Melinda Geoffrey) to page 437 (it was 700 pages long). She was skimming through the information that was on goblin rebellion... Who knows what number it is any more when she saw the name 'James'

_'A goblin named James Doroffin had protested that he ...'_ Lily furiously slammed her book shut and threw it out the window with such force that the neighbors looked up from what they were doing to stare at Lily. "Sorry..." she mumbled and went down the stairs and out the front door to retrieve her book.

She was walking back to the front door when she noticed a snowy white owl swooping down towards her. It landed on the fence beside her and she turned to glare at it. It was the (duh duh duuuuuh)... 'POTTER OWL!' she half yelled half hissed making the neighbors to once again turn to look at her. She snatched the envelope off the owls' leg and studied the letter. It was emerald green (the potters obviously knew that this was Lily's favourite colour). On the front it read:

The Evans Family

4 Pivet Drive

Little Whinging

Lily thought about tearing it up and burning it in the fireplace. Instead Lily walked to the living room to give it to her stepmother and her father.

"Anne the annual Potter letter has come" Lily spat the word 'Potter'. Unfortunately for Lily her dad and Anne got along very well with the Potters'.

"thank you. You are such a dear" Anne, her step mom said insincerely

"would you mind fetching me a Drink. We are watching the tely" Lily simply nodded_ actually I would mind_. Her step mom was not nice or caring towards Lily. Lily had plenty of muggle and magical friends with step moms that were nice. Why did she have to end up with a mean one. Lily's mom had died right after she had started Hogwarts. Lily's mom was very proud of Lily. Lily felt a tear slip down her face as she thought of her mom. Her mom would have been proud to hear that Lily had been made a prefect.

Mean while at the Potter Manor...

"... And then she said I just liked her for the chase" James said to his best mate Sirius.

"well you kind of do prongs mate." Sirius responded to his friend

"But the way I acted after she said my name was like Christmas had come early. It was one of the happiest moments of my life"

"Fine then. Next time you see her snog her senseless.". Sirius chuckled.

"Padfoot, I'm serious!"

"No I'm Siriu-"

"I swear if you use that bloody Sirius pun one more..." James was glaring at his best friend.

"Well if you stop asking her out every five minutes maybe she'll give you a chance." Sirius said once he had stopped laughing

"That's the smartest thing you've ever said padfoot!"

"Well Prongsie my boy that's what I would do. She is quite beautiful isn't she."

"You won't touch her..."

James growled. He knew Sirius only used his 'girlfriends' as snoging buddies, he didn't care what Sirius did but he definitely thought Lily deserved more than that.

"of course not, she's all yours," James relaxed at these words "you really like her don't you, Prongs?"

"yes I really do Pads. She's the reason of my existence."

Sirius snorted "that sounds like it's from a muggle soap opera". The best friends were laughing together leaving all remains of their very recent serious conversation somewhere else.

Only the sound of forks and knives were heard at the Evans dinner table. Ever since Lily's mother died dinner had become a silent function because of Anne. Lily was very close to her father but since he was always with Anne they didn't get very much time to talk alone. For the first time in ages Anne decided to break the silence at the table.

"Guess what the letter from the potters said? They invited us to stay for a couple of weeks." Lily dropped her fork. _Couple of weeks! please say we can't go please say we can't g_' "and I answered back with your owl Lils" _please no please no_" saying that we would be delighted" _please n- oh my god I'm going to die I'm go-_ " we leave tomorrow" _going to die I'm going to die tomorrow_.

"Anne I don't want to go!" petunia said "Like I want to stay with some FREAKS! " Petunia shouted the last part to Lily. _haha nice try she'll never let you stay_. Lily felt a tiny bit better realizing that Anne didn't just hate her.

"Alright, Tom will you stay here with Tuney because I would really like to visit the potters' home."

"Of course dear. Maybe I could join you at the end?"

"We will work it out tonight" Anne said pecking Lilys' father on the cheek

_what! Tuney gets to stay? That is so unfair!_ "Can I stay too, Anne?" Lily said trying to be polite as possible.

"No! Lily I expect you to go and be polite at your classmates' home. This rude behavior is not exceptable when someone graciously invites you to their home"

_'what does this woman against me? Argh the next to weeks are going to be horrible_!

"Pads lily can come! Lily can come! Her mom just owled us. The next two weeks are going to be the best ever!"

A/N: Well that's the end of the first chapter. I didn't take too long to post did I? Well maybe I did… Let me see... How about if we get to 5 reviews I'll post the next chapter as soon as possible. If not I may not post until November. I'm just asking for 3 reviews! I am a busy person and the right encouragement might speed me up a bit! LOL!

Thanks to my reviewers:

SecretMarauderette: you are absolutely right this is going to be good! Although this us a little different from the average lily/James fanfic… MUAH HAHA HA! HA HA HAH- *coughing fit*

James and Lily luver: I know you are not a member of fanfiction but I thank you and encourage you to sign up for the wonderful world of Harry Potter...fanfiction style!


	3. Chapter 2: The Potter Manor

AN: So I'm sorry about the delay! It was on another computer, and so here is chapter two! Hope you enjoy it and please R & R! Only because I want to know what you liked about it and any suggestions for future chapters.

Disclaimer: I do not own this. I wished I did, but wishing on a star every single night that you do does not change anything. Trust me. Not that I know what it's like or anything...

The Potter Manor

The drive to the Potter Manor was very short, too short for Lily. Well, actually it took an hour and a half to get there but to Lily it had seemed like only 5 minutes. The Evans' had decided that Tom and Petunia would stay home until the last few days. Of course Lily didn't like this idea. _No dad, only stupid Anne, and James Potter! This week was going to be terrible! _She thought.

All of a sudden a golden gate had appeared. It opened gracefully and let them through where they were greeted by a house elf. Anne shrieked, but Lily assured her it was very friendly.

"Hello! I is Tommy! I is the second house elf for Potter Manor." Said the large eyed creature.

Lily decided to handle the conversation "Pleasure meeting you Tommy. We are the Evans'. I am Lily and this is my step mother Anne." Lily said politely.

"Tommy is very happy to meet Evans' too! Tommy has heard many wonderful things about Evans', Miss Lily. I is letting you through now." And a second pair of golden gates opened up as Tommy spoke.

"Thank you very much Tommy!" said Lily as they entered through the gates

"..so nice... so nice..." they heard Tommy mutter as they drove away.

For a while they couldn't see anything but the thick fog and the dirt road but soon enough a large figure could be seen. As they drove closer the large figure became larger. Soon it made out to be a very large house...no a very large palace. A cream coloured front covered with ivy. Many large windows and a large door that was red and gold with a large brass knocker in the shape of a lion. _Wow! A true Gryffindor door. And such a beautiful house. _Lily absolutely loved the house, even just from the front. She just stared at it. was definite quite the artist. She knew James was rich (it was quite obvious from the way he acted) but not this rich.

"Are you coming or are you just going to sit there and stare at it?" Anne asked rudely, interrupting Lily's thoughts.

"What? Oh sorry... " Lily replied as she stepped out of her car (which she noticed did not look fit to be at such a place because it looked like trash, Lily also thought the same went for her stepmom).

They walked in silence to the Gryffindor door. Lily still was amazed by the house. They walked up to the brass lion. Anne started to reach her hand up toward the knocker when it let out a large growl. She shrieked for the second time that day. Lily sighed and walked in front of Anne and started talking to the knocker "Hello w-"

"You're talking to a brass knocker?"

"Well we are in the magical world, aren't we?" Anne simply nodded and let Lily continue speaking for he fear that it would growl at her again "Hello we are the Evan's"

The lion to what lily said and said in a voice that sounded like Mr. Potter "Wand out" Lily did as said "And tap me with your wand" Lily tapped the lion with her wand and it knocked three times for her. The door opened immediately, almost as if was waiting there all morning (which I would like to tell you she was).

"Oh Lily!" and Lily hugged Ms. Potter "You have grown so much and are so beautiful! You are gorgeous Lily, absolutely gorgeous" Ms. Potter was always so kind to her. Maybe the weeks spent at the Potter Manor wouldn't be so bad...

James Potter had gotten up very early that morning (4:35 am to be exact) because he was excited about something... He was a little lonely because Sirius had gone to remus's house for the two weeks, but soon he would be with the apple of his eye: Lily Evans! ...yup...big shocker there...So anyway James had spent two hours grooming himself and taking shower. While his hair was still wet he performed a spell to keep it wet. Why? So a) He could tell Lily that he just took a shower so it didn't seem like he had spent a long time getting ready, plus he looked good when his hair was wet, if he had to say so himself and b) His hair was a bit flatter when it was wet (no explanation needed there). So he spent the next hour picking the perfect outfit. He ended up choosing beige cargo pants and a white button down shirt, of course he unbuttoned the first 3 buttons. At this point (7:13 AM) his mother walked in to wake him up and was quite surprised to find him all ready and undoing the first three buttons."Oh! Jamie I know that look. You're trying to impress someone. Oh Jamie your so grown up!" Ms. Potter started crying and squeezed her son in a great big hug "My Jamie is so grown up!"

James tried to calm down his mom "Mom! Mom! Stop crying you're going to get tears on my shirt. Mom! Everything is alright. Stop wasting your tears on me." But to no avail.

"Oh Jamesy! You make me proud looking at you being so mature!" Ms. Potter said as she rolled up the sleeves on his shirt.

"Mom. I need to get ready can you please leave?" James said politely to his mother

"Alright. I'm sorry I'll let you get ready" and his mother walked out of his room. James Potter continued getting ready. He was running around his room trying to find his 'Weebly Wester's magical 24 hour lasting cologne' when Tibby the house elf walked in.

"Master James, why is you up this early doing so much work?" Tibby asked in her elfish voice

"I'm just getting ready for the day Tibby." James said trying not to be annoyed at the house elf, Tibby was just trying to help.

"Oh, Miss. Lily. Tibby remembers what you said about Miss. Lily. Tibby is excited to meet Miss. Lily. Master James, Tibby will help you!"

"Tibby that's alright. You work too much. Please just take a break." Tibby was way too kind to the Potters'. They were always encouraging her to take a break but she never would.

"Oh no sir, Tibby cannot stop working. Oh no sir, there is too much work to be done. The Potter family will always need Tibbys' help."

James sighed "Alright Tibby. You can help me Tibby, but just a bit. I just can't find my Weebly Wester's."

"Tibby will summon it!" Tibby snapped and the cologne flew from under his bed into Tibby's Left hand.

_Why didn't I think of that? I'm already legal age. I keep forgetting that. _"Thanks Tibby!"

"Tibby bring you breakfast!" Tibby said excitedly

James sighed at the willingness in Tibby's voice "Alright, nothing too fancy though."

"I is leaving to get it now, master James" and Tibby bowed before leaving out the door. James sighed (again) _I bet Tibby's gonna come back with the most gourmet breakfast in London, scratch that, in the world. _At that Moment James' dad walked in.

"What's got your wand in a twist!" questioned.

"Arrrrgh!" James yelled, not to any one in particular "Why does everyone interrupt me when I'm trying to be ready when Lily gets here!" He started flailing his arms around. His dad turned to leave "Sorry dad, just a bit frustrated."

"A bit?"

"Sorry, a lot. I was just trying to get dressed when mom walked in. Then I was trying to find my Weebly Westers when Tibby walked in and now this."

"Weebly Wester's, you say?"

"Yes dad, Yes dad I'm trying to impress Lily. Go ahead laugh, make fun of me, get my breakfast or start crying like mom did!"

"Actually, I was going to tell you what Weebly Wester's was like when I was a kid..." Mr. Potter said dully

"Oh..." James said quietly. There was a bit of awkward silence. After a moment of unease James' dad decided to break it.

"Well good luck son. I think you look good. You'll definitely make…er..a.. great impression on her!" and Mr. Potter walked out

"Finally!" James said to himself. Now he was a bit behind after all of the interruptions. It was now (8:17) and he had (he checked his watched) only one hour and a half until Lily was here. He quickly sprayed his Weebly Wester's and sat down on his bed when his breakfast just appeared. He quickly gulped down his breakfast and his plate disappeared. " Tersusa Surasurmon!" James yelled the cleaning spell loudly and everything in his room (literally) jumped into the right place. Just then he heard his mother greeting Lily.

" You have grown so much and are so beautiful! You are gorgeous Lily, absolutely gorgeous..." _gorgeous? _Gorgeous was an understatement. Lily was the most beautiful girl James had ever laid eyes on. "Jamie! Come here and help Lily with her bags!" James ran hurriedly down the stairs to spend as much time with Lily as he could, not even caring that his mother had called him _Jamie_. This was definitely going to be the best time ever!


End file.
